TogetHER for Health Newsletter: November 30th, 2024

Dear Supporter, 

On World AIDS Day – December 1st – we celebrate the tremendous progress made in the global fight against HIV/AIDS while reflecting on the millions of lives lost and how to ensure access to prevention, testing, and treatment to all in need. It’s also an important day to take stock of progress on global commitments to end HIV/AIDS – which inspired a similar evidence-based global strategy to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem.

Our reflections on World AIDS Day in 2024 focus on a concerning environment for the future of global investments to prevent HIV/AIDS – an environment in which cervical cancer prevention is deeply embedded. As funding for HIV/AIDS programming goes, so does cervical cancer support. 

Read our blog here.

Register Today for our December 12th Webinar on Screening and Treatment in LMICs!

The World Health Organization’s Global Strategy to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer was launched in 2020, built on expanding access to three complementary interventions: HPV vaccination, screening and treatment. Despite the international support behind its goals, wide-scale implementation of the Strategy’s last two pillars in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has been uneven.

With support from Cepheid, TogetHER for Health is organizing a webinar on Thursday, December 12th bringing together global experts to highlight existing opportunities and challenges of screen-and-treat approaches and point-of-care HPV testing, provide regional examples of successful screen-and-treat models, and share perspectives on funding and policy needs to drive progress towards global cervical cancer elimination goals.

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ll be joined by representatives from the World Health Organization, the Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity in Society, the Kenya Medical Research Institute, the Female Cancer Foundation, Tulane University, and Jhpiego. The event will take place on December 12th at 8:00 am EST/2:00 pm CST/4:00 pm EAT.

Register today for this important conversation!

Good News for Cervical Cancer Elimination: UICC Announces Awardees for Grants Boosting HPV Vaccination Efforts in LMICs

This newsletter’s spotlight on what’s keeping us optimistic about cervical cancer elimination comes from our partners at the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), who recently announced ten awardees of a grants program seeking to increase HPV vaccination rates among girls under 15.

As a member organization of UICC focused on cervical cancer prevention, TogetHER was honored to contribute to the review of these applications, based on the relevance, feasibility, potential for impact, and sustainability of the projects, with an additional focus on political and socio-economic context. Congratulations to the diverse list of recipients, including former Cervical Cancer Grants Program awardee Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Service. The full list of awardees can be found here.

We led off this newsletter expressing our concerns for the future of global health funding – especially for HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer – so it’s great to spotlight new investments in ending this preventable cancer. Regardless of the environment, TogetHER remains steadfast in our support for programs to put cervical cancer in the history books, and we know we’re not alone. Thanks to all of you for keeping the focus on saving lives.

In partnership, 

Heather White

TogetHER for Health
Working together to save women from cervical cancer